


Solitas

by tomanonuniverse



Series: Fair Game Week 2020 [7]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Diver!Clover, Diving, Don't copy to another site, First Meetings, M/M, Meet-Cute, Merman!Qrow, Merpeople, fair game, fairgameweek2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:35:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23257783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tomanonuniverse/pseuds/tomanonuniverse
Summary: Fair Game Week 2020 Day Seven: Free Day/AUClover finds himself laughing hysterically as he reaches forward and grabs the source of the light, pulling it back out and realizing that, yes, this was, in fact, the exact lamp described in the article he’d read. He’d be lying if he said it wasn’t enchanting to look at, and he could have sworn the object was pulsating within his grip. He flicks the lucky pin on his person and beams. He knew he carried the green charm around for a reason.The diver admires the lamp in his hands for a moment, then he looks up.And proceeds to scream.
Relationships: Qrow Branwen/Clover Ebi
Series: Fair Game Week 2020 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1665484
Comments: 7
Kudos: 70





	Solitas

**Author's Note:**

> [rolls sleeves] i jus gotta do everything my goddamn self huh??? wheres my goddamn mermer qrow huh??????? no body helps in this goddamn house
> 
> enjoy!

Clover Ebi knows he’s not the most…  _ orthodox  _ of individuals. In the modern day and age, it was kind of strange to find someone whose only hobbies centered around his love for  _ marine life,  _ of all things. More often than not, Clover could be found fishing, diving out in the middle of the sea, or reading a book about either (or both). It was ironic that, despite everything, the only job he could manage to land that related to what he loved was in an aquarium, as a  _ security guard.  _

He shakes his head to rid himself of the sad reminder of his reality. Looking out into the water, he beams at the sunrise, excited to start another expedition in the ocean below. He had the night shift at the aquarium, so almost all of his mornings were spent out on water. His only wish is that he’d have someone to share these moments with.

Again, the man shakes his head. Usually, coming out here would clear his mind and put him at peace, yet something kept bothering him and forcing his thoughts to stray towards the negative. He’s not stupid. Well, not  _ that  _ stupid. He’s well aware of just what it is that has him feeling so down as of recent.

Clover’s lonely.

He didn’t have many friends, but those he could call such all had busy morning schedules. Even if they didn’t, he doubted any of them would spare their free time accompanying him on something that didn’t interest them. He knows some of them would humor him, but he would feel far too guilty to selfishly drag them out all this way. 

As he prepared his diving gear, he felt his worries begin to fade and replace themselves with jitters of excitement. He silently thanked the Gods above that he had the privilege of being financially well-off enough to afford doing this as often as he does. He also has rich friends that let him borrow their “extra” yachts  _ (cough cough, Winter, cough cough),  _ but that was a different story. 

He could barely restrain himself from leaping into the water the moment the sun finally rose. You see, he was looking for something quite special on his current morning journey. Legends say that deep within the blue abyss lay four ancient relics: Choice, Knowledge, Creation, and Destruction, left behind by the Brothers of Light and Dark when they walked amongst their mortal creations, each holding unfathomable power that no human could ever dream of wielding.

Of course, Clover didn’t believe all of that bogus. Magic wasn’t real and the Gods had no reason to have once upon a time been chilling on miserable little planet Earth. But Clover  _ did  _ believe that the “relics” were out there, and he wanted to add more useless but valuable things to his endless collections of peculiar things he found at the bottom of the sea.

The site he was currently swimming through was meant to harness the relic of Knowledge, which, according to his research, was essentially a lamp. It’s supposed to be glowing, which if true would make his search a lot easier, but he doubted it would be, unless it was fluorescent and not actually powered by a charge. 

As he navigated through sharp rocks and moved away heavy stones, he wondered just how absolutely  _ crazy  _ it would be, were those fairytales true. The idea that he could actually have some…  _ magical artifact  _ graced with power from the  _ Gods  _ was not only downright insane, but kind of scary. 

He laughed at the ridiculous thought and as a result, cut the palm of his hand on a particularly pointy edge of yet another rough stone. He immediately pulled his hand back and hissed, pulling it to his chest and looking at the gash that now decorated it. Blood seeped from the wound and disintegrated into the sea’s water, making Clover sigh. He might have to cut his adventure short to treat his injury before it gets worse.

Yet the moment he thought that, a soft neon blue luster caught his attention.  _ ‘No way,’  _ he thought, and promptly forgot all about his injured hand. He couldn’t kick his legs fast enough to get closer to the source of the glowing if he tried. If this was actually the  _ “relic of Knowledge,”  _ he’s going to give the man who wrote the research  _ (Ozma? Ozpin? Something of the sort…)  _ his left kidney.

Clover finds himself laughing hysterically as he reaches forward and grabs the source of the light, pulling it back out and realizing that, yes, this was, in fact, the exact lamp described in the article he’d read. He’d be lying if he said it wasn’t enchanting to look at, and he could have sworn the object was  _ pulsating  _ within his grip. He flicks the lucky pin on his person and beams. He knew he carried the green charm around for a reason.

The diver admires the lamp in his hands for a moment, then he looks up.

And proceeds to  _ scream. _

There’s a  _ person—  _ or what he  _ thinks  _ is a person— staring back at him with wide, red eyes. He quickly backtracks though, because as crazy as it sounds, he finds that his initial thought was right.  _ That’s not a person.  _

His graying black hair and stubble made him seem so, so human, but the fins on his ears and the gills on his neck were dead giveaways to the fact that he was  _ not.  _ Clover could spy sharp teeth between his rosy lips and small red scales littered every bit of his skin, from his shoulders to his face. 

The last straw Clover needed was the sight of the creature’s  _ tail.  _

Now, he’s no  _ Angelica Julie,  _ okay? He’s not an explorer, he doesn’t “have his eye on the prize,” and he’s sure as hell not focused on what he found more than he’s focused on himself. Naturally, he drops the lamp and  _ gets the fuck out of there,  _ frantically swimming upwards as fast as could, not looking back to see whether  _ whatever that was  _ was behind him or not.

He gasps once he’s on the safety of Winter’s yacht, practically flinging his gear off of himself and scrambling away from the edges of the boat. His eyes never leave the circle of ripples originating from where he broke the surface of the water, watching,  _ waiting  _ for the creature he’d seen to pop up and show itself. 

The pounding in his ears was the only thing he could hear. His heart was going to beat out of his chest and, if he was being honest, he was two seconds away from passing out right where he sat. In all his 38 years of living, he’d never  _ once  _ seen or heard of  _ anything  _ like what he’d just seen down there. 

_ ‘Maybe I hallucinated that,’  _ he thinks, trying to make sense of what he’d seen as his tremors slowly come to a halt.  _ ‘Maybe I wasn’t breathing properly in my hype over finding the lamp and I ended up hallucinating. That had to be it, right?’ _

His unspoken question is answered when the creature’s head peeks out from the water, staring at him with curious eyes. 

This time, he maintains eye contact for  _ longer  _ than a millisecond, just to make sure he wasn’t imagining it. Neither of them move for a moment, so the creature tilts his head at him, trying to get a read on his behavior and predict what he’ll try to do next. 

Clover shakily shifts onto his knees and extends a placating hand. “Uh… Hey?” He stammers ungracefully, voice no doubt filled with fear. He clears his throat and tries again. “Hey there… friend… I’m, uh… My name’s Clover. Clover Ebi. Can you... understand me?”

The creature stares back quietly, then nods slowly. Clover nods back, swallowing nervously. “Right, good, that’s good,” he says, mostly to himself. The other simply blinks at him, still curious but pursuing caution over all. “Well, uh. I’m not gonna hurt you or anything, I— I just dive for fun. Are you… gonna hurt me?”

He’s fucking terrified of the answer and the brief pause before receiving it nearly gives him a heart attack. Finally, the creature shakes his head no. Clover doesn’t hold back the heave of relief and his shoulders sag, feeling like the weight of the world was just lifted off of his shoulders. 

He changes his position onto his knees, still trying to wrap his mind around the situation. “So… Forgive me for asking this so bluntly but… What  _ are  _ you?” He dares to inquire, watching the creature’s eyebrows shoot into his hairline in disbelief. “And what was… the thing down there? Was that… The Relic of Knowledge?”

The creature  _ stares,  _ and  _ Gods  _ does Clover feel  _ scrutinized  _ underneath it’s gaze. He’s looking at him as if befuddled by his questions, like he didn’t know if he was genuinely asking for proper replies or not. Clover probably looked really,  _ really  _ stupid to him in that moment, but he found that he didn’t mind all that much. 

Ever so abruptly, the creature rises from the water. It takes all of Clover’s self-restraint and discipline not to jump out of his skin and run below deck. He’d risen just enough to reveal the rest of his lower jaw and a bit of his shoulders, and since all of Clover’s self-restraint and discipline were already used up trying not to flee, he unabashedly stares at the glistening pale skin and toned muscles now displayed before him.

He only realizes he’s staring when the creature is suddenly a lot closer to him than a moment ago. He’s at the edge of the yacht now, and he has one hand extended out to Clover. The diver blinks in confusion. “Are you… Do you want me to come closer?” He fearfully asks, and whimpers when the other nods in confirmation. 

_ ‘This is such a bad idea,’  _ Clover sings internally, but approaches the other being anyways. He stares at the hand extended out to him for a moment, then puts his own within it. The creature covers his hand with his other one and for a hot second, Clover fears the worst as his hand begins to glow a bright teal. 

But then it stops, and the creature retracts one hand and waits. Clover furrows his brows and turns his hand over, promptly losing the air in his lungs in the process.

The cut on his hand was no longer there. In fact, it looked as if it had never happened in the first place. There wasn’t a single trace of a scar or anything. His palm was  _ completely bare. _

_ “How did you…?”  _ Clover whispers in wonder and disbelief, unable to finish his sentence. The creature grabs his hand once again and drops something into his now healed palm, then pulls away entirely. Despite the loss, Clover looks down at his hand and blinks. It was his good luck pin.

“Don’t come back.”

Clover’s head snaps up to look at the other being but he was already submerged within the water, the only part of him that he manages to catch in time being his scaly, glimmering tail giving a graceful twirl as he dove below once more. The diver glances at his clover charm, then at his unscathed palm, then at the place where the creature once was, and concludes only one thing.

He was  _ definitely _ coming back.

**Author's Note:**

> see u space cowboy...


End file.
